Post the launch of the Maruti Celerio earlier this month, the company has stopped production of the A-Star and the Estilo hatchbacks. The Celerio, which is in fact the next generation A-Star, will fill the voids left behind by these two cars.
The A-Star was launched in India in November 2008, while an automatic transmission variant was added later on. The small hatchback debuted Maruti Suzuki's K-Series petrol engine in India, and the same family of engines is now seen on the Wagon R, Swift, Ritz, Ertiga, Celerio, Alto K10 and Dzire. The made-in-India A-Star was exported to over 150 global destinations.
The hatchback was also badge-engineered by Nissan, and the Nissan Pixo as it was called, was sold in Europe.
The Estilo was originally launched as the Zen Estilo in India. While its basically the Suzuki MR-Wagon, the car replaced the original Zen hatchback in India in 2006. 2009 saw Maruti removing the 'Zen' badge and mildly refreshing the car. However, the Estilo was always seen as an unnecessary product in Maruti's portfolio with its price clashing with the Wagon R, a name that is more trusted by the Indian car buyer.
Both, the A-Star and Estilo, are considered poor sales performers for Maruti. In the January-December 2013 period, Maruti sold an average of 754 Estilos per month while the A-Star saw average monthly sales of 592 units.
